A recreational tent should have a number of desirable features. For example, it is highly desirable that the tent be as lightweight and portable as possible. It should be easy to put up and take down. The tent should have a minimum number of separate pieces. Once installed, the tent should provide a maximum amount of floor space as well as internal volume. It is desirable for many users that the tent have an attached floor. The tent should provide easy ingress and egress and thorough ventilation, yet should provide adequate shelter from the weather. The tent should also be stable in all weather conditions including wind and should be able to adequately support any surface loads such as rain and snow. Although many tents designs have been proposed in the prior art, no tent has adequately maximized all of these desirable features.
Collapsible tents particularly suited for industrial use have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,810,482 and 3,968,809. These tents are generally not suited for recreational use because of their high profiles, square footprints and generally flat roofs. The first of these patents teaches that a minimum of four subframe assemblies is required. The latter teaches that a three subframe assembly is unstable unless attached to another structure, in that instance the "rear end" of a van. The number of frames required increases the weight of the tent and decreases its portability.
Efforts have been made to utilize similar subframe systems to produce recreational tents, as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,941,140, 4,077,417 and 4,941,499. Because these tents use square subframes, it has been necessary to have a tent with an unduly high profile to have a length adequate to cover a sleeping adult. The problem cannot be readily solved by using rectangular subframes, since the use of struts of different lengths in the same subframe results in torsion that causes twisting of the struts and subframes and the tent in which they are incorporated. The use of four square subframes as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,499 produces a tent of undue complexity and weight. Also, it is impossible to provide such a tent which can be erected and collapsed with an attached floor. Although the tents shown in these patents are useful as industrial "trench" tents, they are not practical for recreational purposes.
The present invention solves these problems and optimizes the features desired in a recreational tent both individually and collectively.